Spaghetti, Smartphones & China’s Impact on the World

Chinese Consumers

Chinese People Have Lots of Faith in China, But Not So Much In Their Fellow Chinese: 87% of Chinese believe their country is heading in the right track – 10 percentage points above second placed India and 40 above the global average. Unemployment, financial/political corruption and poverty & social inequality are the three most worrying topics for Chinese. 47% of Chinese respondents ranked ‘moral decline’ as one of their top-three greatest concerns – the highest of any country.

Sir Don McKinnon: We’re Facing Stiff Competition with China: New Zealand’s former Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations shares some polarizing stats about the relative importance of China to its trading partners. Although New Zealand-centric, it applies to many nations.

Xiaomi Scales Pinnacle in Wearables: Xiaomi has leapfrogged Apple Inc to be the world’s largest wearable product manufacturer shipping 3.7 million wearable devices in the second quarter, up 23% year-on-year.

UN Human Rights Watchdog Sends Apple Letter Over China VPN Demands: David Kaye, a human rights expert at the UN, sent a letter to Apple asking if they took into consideration the “international instruments such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights or the Global Network Initiative’s Principles on Freedom of Expression” to protect the rights of Chinese consumers, following their removal of more than 400 VPN apps from their Chinese App store.

Food & Beverage

Chinese State Firms Get a Taste for McDonald’s as Big Mac Starts to Lose its Symbolic Power: McDonalds has completed a deal which will see CITC take a controlling stake of McDonalds’ operations in China, effectively making it a state-owned company. US-based McDonalds will retain just a 20% stake in the business in a fall from the glory days that followed its launch in 1990. Following the deal, McDonalds announced plans to increase its Chinese restaurants from 2,500 to 4,500 within five years. 45% will be in Tier 3 and 4 cities with 75% providing takeout and delivery services.

Stout Beer Surges in China, Eclipsing American Market: Chinese drinkers are projected to consume 264 million litres of stout beer this year – more than ten times the volume 5 years ago. Consumption is expected to grow to 658.7 million litres by 2021 according to Euromonitor.

Fashion

China’s Designers Want to Tell the Fashion Story Without Bamboo and Pandas: In China’s $300 billion fashion industry, the proportion of Chinese shoppers favouring local brands has more than doubled to 46% from 22% two years ago, driven mainly by younger consumers. Yet most Chinese apparel brands are still suffering from an uncompetitive marketing strategy and appealing product design, as well as lacking a clear focus on their target customers, compared to their foreign peers who have dominated the top spots in the mainland China market.

Sports

Adidas China’s Republic of Sports event attracts more than 92m live streams: More than 92 million people have live streamed events from Adidas’ Republic of Sports activation event which takes place in a custom-built sports facility, showcasing football, basketball, running, training and outdoor through a program of live events. The campaign has helped to recruit 400,000 new members to the brand’s adiClub program.

Liverpool 0-1 Copycats: How Chinese Fake Goods are Beating the Real Thing: Liverpool FC has cut the cost of its latest shirt from $87 to $30, in an attempt to convince Chinese consumers to buy its official merchandise over the fake ones. While the low-cost shirt may look similar to the official jersey, it is redesigned with simpler materials and is not made by the club’s official sponsor, New Balance.